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Friday, 14 February 2014

Friday Feature: Author Interview with Jane Elson

I've been trying to read more MG this year and one of the best of several really good ones I've enjoyed was Jane Elson's A Room Full of Chocolate. I was really pleased to get the chance to talk to her about it. This interview originally ran at The Bookbag - links go there!

1. When
you close your eyes and imagine your readers, who do you see?

Jane
Elson: A child who loves animals, probably has a special secret den that they
read in: probably a bit of a daydreamer.

2. One of
my favourite things about A Room Full Of Chocolate was the lovely friendship
between Megan and Grace. Who are your favourite fictional friends?

JE: Peter
Pan and Wendy immediately came to mind. That story is so haunting. I am
thinking of books that had an effect on me as I was growing up. I remember a
book called Nobody’s House by Martin Hall where there was a very
touching friendship between the Victorian workhouse ghost and the children that
lived there. I am a sucker for any book with horses! My all time favourites
were the Flambards books by K M Peyton. I love the complicated
friendships between Christina, Mark, William and Dick.

My
favourite friendship between an animal and a child is Mary O’Hara’s My
Friend Flicka. The relationship between Ken and his horse Flicka is so
special.

Shamefully, I’ve only read the
first Flambards book, but thought it
was wonderful.

3. Also,
I love books with travelling in them, so I really enjoyed reading about Megan
and Grace's journey. What's the best journey you've ever been on?

JE:
Driving with friends in a car through San Francisco. I absolutely love that
city! Also exploring the south of France by car with a friend. A truly stunning
part of the world. I also think any journey where you are travelling towards
someone you love is special.

I’d absolutely love to go to San
Francisco, it looks amazing!

4. Your
bio mentions that in addition to writing, you run creative writing and comedy
improvisation workshops for children with special educational needs. What's the
best thing about doing these?

JE: For
me there is nothing greater in life than seeing a child’s communication skills
and confidence improve. I love it when other teachers tell me that because of
the drama workshops they have seen a difference in that child in other areas of
their life. We have so much humour and laughter in the workshops as well. When
I am teaching dyslexic children and they see how dyslexic I am, I find they
relax and we have a lot of banter in the sessions which helps produce good
work.

5. Prior
to writing, you performed as an actress and a comedy improviser - what's the
role you had the most fun playing?

JE: I
love this question and it would make my friends laugh as they joke that for an
actor whose roots are in comedy my latest roles have been so serious! But I
hasten to add that these roles are extremely important.

I did a play
about knife crime among youths and my most recent role was a verbatim piece
about child abuse. We had a lot of laughter in breaks in rehearsals as a
release from the subject matter. Laughter is so important it can really help
you cope. Way way back I remember having a lot of fun playing Jackie in Noel
Coward’s Hay Fever.

6. Also,
you write plays as well as novels - do you approach the two in similar
mindsets, or is there anything different in the way you prepare to write a play
compared to a book?

JE: I
approached writing a book very differently at first, very cautiously, but then
as I progressed with my course at City Lit I realized that writing dialogue for
plays stood me in really good stead for writing believable conversations in
books and really they are not so different. I approach both as I do when
playing a role as an actor getting right inside the character.

7. Your
bio also mentions you ate a lot of chocolate in the name of research - very
sensible! (And if there's a sequel and you need help preparing for it, just
drop me an e-mail!) What's your very favourite chocolate bar?

JE: Oh
there’s a question! I vary but I must admit I ate an awful lot of Galaxy.

8. On a
similar note, if you could give a lifetime's supply of three particular chocolate
bars to three fellow authors (one each), which bars would you pick, who would
you give them to, and why?

JE: I
would give the new Cadbury’s bar Marvellous Creations to David Almond
– it has fizzy beans that explode in your mouth and surprises you like his
stunning writing. You never know where it will take you. Reading Skellig was
a wondrous adventure.

I would
give Bourneville chocolate to Judith Kerr. When
Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit is a really special book to me and gave me the
confidence to write A Room Full of Chocolate which touches on my own
childhood. Bourneville was a chocolate that would have been eaten in the 1940s
and must have been a truly special thing to have at that time. A rare treat
like Judith Kerr’s writing.

My third
lifetime supply of chocolate would go to author Lou Kuenzler.
I would give her a life time supply of Revels. She was my tutor at City Lit and
taught me so many different things. She has this amazing fun energy and each
session would hold a surprise for me like Revels with all their different
centres. Also they are mini chocolates which is the perfect sweets for Lou who
is the author of the delightful Shrinking
Violet series.

What a
fabulous answer!

9. What
are you reading at the moment?

JE: I
always have several books on the go at once. I am coming to the end of The Book Thief
and loving it. I have just started Anne-Marie Conway’s Butterfly
Summer and am finding it very intriguing. I am just about to start Ketchup Clouds by Annabel Pitcher. Really
looking forward to it. Her book My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece was a
masterpiece.

I’m a
huge fan of The Book Thief, Butterfly Summer AND Ketchup Clouds!

10. What's
next for Jane Elson?

JE: I
have a two-book deal with Hodder so I will be busy working on Jump my second
book with my lovely editor Naomi Greenwood. I also have some festival
appearances which I am really looking forward to. A Room Full of Chocolate is
my debut novel so this is all new and exciting for me.